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Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 12:03:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bill White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Subject: [AL-AWDA] Forward: GOP Driving Jews Out of State Legislatures
Jewish Dems: GOP Redistricting Plans Cross the Line
By RACHEL DONADIO
FORWARD STAFF
Republican-controlled redistricting efforts in Texas
and Utah could eliminate every Jewish Democratic state
representative in each of those states, the targeted
legislators are warning.
The redistricting efforts in both states will pit
incumbent Jewish Democrats against other incumbent
Democrats in new districts in ways that critics say
favor the non-Jews.
In Texas, the American Jewish Committee has testified
that the new map splits Houston's Jewish community in
thirds, weakening its voting power.
Republicans overseeing redistricting in Texas and Utah
say that Jewish lawmakers were not singled out for
their religion, but rather because they are Democrats.
Indeed, the new maps, based on 2000 Census data,
infuse current Democratic strongholds with Republicans
from surrounding areas, further jeopardizing the
Democrats' chances of re-election.
Yet, regardless of the motivations behind them, if the
maps are passed, analysts say that the clout of the
Jewish Democratic minority in both
Republican-dominated states could be diluted.
"They're trying to do to a lot of us through
redistricting what they've been unable to do at the
ballot box," said Texas state Rep. Scott Hochberg, a
veteran Jewish Democrat from Houston. "Democratic
members who have won repeatedly in districts that
elect Republicans are being removed from office by
virtue of the map."
"I don't perceive it as purposeful anti-Semitism or
targeting, but the result remains the same," said Utah
State Rep. David Litvack.
Mr. Litvack and his only Jewish colleague in the
legislature, state Rep. Patrice Arent, both Democrats
from Salt Lake City, would be pitted against incumbent
Democrats from neighboring districts. The new seats
favor the non-Jewish incumbents. "It's not always in
the intent where we see the injustice," Mr. Litvack
said.
Texas
In Texas, State Representatives Elliott Naishtat in
Austin and Steve Wolens in Dallas are two of four
Jewish Democrats who would be paired against other
Democratic incumbents in new districts with Republican
majorities.
Yet, the situation is most extreme in Houston where
Mr. Hochberg would be pitted against his fellow Jewish
Democrat, state Rep. Debra Danburg. The newly drawn,
largely Republican district would favor a GOP
incumbent.
"It totally eliminates my district," said Mr.
Hochberg, a well-respected 10-year incumbent who
serves on the House Appropriations Committee. If the
map is passed, he said, "I guess we look for work."
Mr. Hochberg's current district, which contains Rice
University and its medical center, has a strong
Democratic voice. It also contains much of the city's
Jewish community, which the proposed map would split
into three new districts: One would contain an
African-American majority, while another would stretch
almost to Texas's eastern border and be overwhelmingly
Republican.
"They've effectively divided the community and limited
our ability to elect representatives," said Ben
Samuels, a vice president of AJCommittee's Houston
branch. "We have testified and have lobbied and are
working to have our voice heard."
After the AJCommittee and others in the Jewish
community testified against the map, the Legislative
Board redrew it in a way that further divided the
Jewish community, Mr. Hochberg said.
The Houston map has drawn the ire of some
African-Americans and Hispanics for similar reasons.
Gay activists are upset that the new map bisects
Houston's gay community, which falls largely in Ms.
Danburg's district.
Democrats control Texas's state House of
Representatives, while the Senate has a narrow 16-15
Republican margin. The House proposed a redistricting
plan that did not eliminate any Jewish seats, while
the Senate did not propose any plan.
Because of the lack of consensus — exacerbated by the
governor saying that he would veto any legislative
plan — redistricting fell to a Legislative
Redistricting Board. Congressional redistricting fell
into the hands of the federal courts. Texas will gain
two congressional seats, for a total of 32.
Four of the board's five members are Republicans. Its
chairman is GOP State Attorney General John Cornyn.
The Cornyn plan paired up incumbent Democrats in eight
districts, incumbent Republicans in one district and
Democratic against GOP incumbents in nine seats,
creating 22 new open districts with no current
incumbent.
While the four Jewish Democrats were all paired in new
districts, the state's lone Jewish Republican, State
Senator Florence Shapiro from Dallas-Fort Worth, faces
no challenges.
"This is the most partisan redistricting plan in the
history of Texas," said Mr. Naishtat.
Ms. Shapiro acknowledged that the new map had been
drawn in order to help the Republicans capture the
state house "for the first time in 140 years." "That
has everything to do with it," Ms. Shapiro said.
"Texas is a Republican state."
Mr. Naishtat, who is chairs the House Human Services
Committee, will be pitted against two fellow Democrats
in the same district. If the map is approved, both
have said that they won't run against him, Mr.
Naishtat said.
Mr. Cornyn downplayed the religious and partisan
dimensions of the redistricting. "The attorney general
did not for a moment consider religion when proposing
new boundary lines for the Texas legislature," said
Jane Shepperd, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cornyn. She said
that the attorney general's goals were "clear and
two-fold: Number one, to propose plans that will pass
muster with the Department of Justice, and, number
two, to propose plans that will hold up to the
inevitable court challenges."
Mr. Naishtat disagreed. "While Cornyn may argue that
it is simply a coincidence that his plan places at
risk the only Jewish members of the Texas House, the
fact of the matter is his plan does precisely that,"
Mr. Naishtat said. "The lines for each of our
respective districts could easily have been drawn to
avoid this clearly discriminatory outcome."
Utah
In Utah, a Republican-controlled House Redistricting
Committee drew the state's new map, which critics have
said effectively eliminates the current districts of
all of the state's Jewish lawmakers and threatens many
of its women legislators.
In Salt Lake City, Mr. Litvack, the state
representative, was paired with a neighboring Democrat
in a new district that maintains "only a sliver" of
his original one, he said.
Mr. Litvack, 29, was elected in 2000 to the 27th
District, a 30% minority residential area in southern
Salt Lake City. He is the assistant Utah regional
director of the National Conference for Community and
Justice, formerly called the National Conference of
Christians and Jews.
The new map also spells trouble for the other Jewish
representative, Ms. Arent, a Salt Lake City lawyer who
since being elected in 1995 has gone from outsider to
house minority whip. She is paired with her Democratic
colleague Rep. Karen Morgan in a new district that
favors Ms. Morgan.
Elsewhere in Utah, two other Democrats were merged
into the same district, while two Democratic districts
were gerrymandered into heavily Republican districts.
Republicans control two-thirds of the Utah House and
Senate and all statewide offices.
The redistricting committee presented its plan to the
House on September 27, leaving only hours to debate a
map that would likely eliminate six Democratic seats.
The House had previously agreed to end debate at 3
p.m. that day so that Mr. Litvack and Ms. Arent could
prepare for Yom Kippur. As the hour neared, however,
the house took a voice vote and a Republican majority
nearly passed a motion to continue debate.
"To me that was very disrespectful and inconsiderate,"
Mr. Litvack said. The lack of regard for the Jewish
holiday "does not typify my experience as a Jewish
legislator, but it does indicate the lack of balance
in the Utah state legislature," he said.
Ms. Arent agreed. As a Jewish legislator in an
overwhelmingly Mormon and Republican state, "It is a
little lonely out here," she said.
House Republicans have also blocked a resolution by
Mr. Litvack and Ms. Arent that speaks out against
retribution on the local Arab and Muslim communities
for the September 11 terror attacks.
Gerry Adair, a Republican representative who chairs
the House Redistricting Committee, said that the
Jewish holiday had nothing to do with the vote. "They
wanted to stay and finish unfinished business," he
said.
Mr. Adair said population decline shaped the new map.
He said that the eastern side of the Salt Lake Valley,
where Mr. Litvack and Ms. Arent's districts lie, had
lost more than 50,000 people.
"This was nothing to do with religion or women or men
representatives," Mr. Adair said. "It just happens to
be that six or seven of the representatives from the
east side of the Salt Lake Valley are women, out of
eight lady representatives in the entire house. And
that's where we lost the population," he said.
Democrats counter that the top three seats that lost
the most population were all Republican.
Mr. Adair said that the House Democratic leadership
had "requested" that they pair Mr. Litvack and Ms.
Arent, among other Democrats. "That was their
decision. Almost half of the Democrats voted for it,"
he said.
"The census is very contentious in most states," Mr.
Adair said. "We tried to be fair, but fair is only in
the eyes of the beholder."
In addition, the state's new congressional map would
divide traditionally Democratic Salt Lake County into
a urban-rural hybrid, making it easier for a GOP
candidate to recapture the 2nd District and keep the
GOP grip on the state's other two districts.
The state Senate was expected to pass the map this
week.
Governor Mike Leavitt had said that he would sign the
redistricting bills, which he likened to the
television show "Survivor."
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